I aten’t dead

Although it seems like half the state is afire, the bit of it that contains me and mine isn’t so.  For perspective, the biggest fire (the Bastrop complex fire) is thirty miles to the southeast and more or less moving in the direction of Away.  Two other fires (the Pedernales One and Steiner Ranch fires) are fifteen to twenty miles to the west and are being contained.  The wind is down, which is a mercy—that’s what made the Bastrop fire burn so hard on Sunday and Monday.  When I left work yesterday, I could see the Bastrop fire’s smoke plume, a huge, ugly, thunderhead-looking thing, from forty miles away.  Fire crews are being pushed beyond their breaking points, and they’re still fighting, despite a new state budget which went into effect last Thursday and gutted $35 million out of the state forest service’s budget and another $30 million gutted out of state grants for local fire departments to buy desperately needed equipment, and all in the service of “NO TAXES.”  Well, Lege critters, you got your no taxes, and look what else it got you.